"HeyBub" wrote in message
...
NotMe wrote:

These is not that much 'excess capacity' in the USA. The oil that XL
will bring to the gulf coast is intended to be sold (if contracts are
no already in place) as export which will reduce the available
refinery capacity for those in the good old USA. This equates to an
increase fuel cost.

I'm in Texas and keep up with this sort of thing. Within 200 miles of
Houston, we have about 9% excess refining capacity. Nine percent is a HUGE
number. At full capacity, Texas' 27 refineries can refine about five
million barrels per day. About 10% of that is 500,000 bbls. The XL
pipeline, can supply about 435,000 to 591,000 bbl/day.


BTW the folk who operate the XL pipe line have a very bad reputation
for safety and have had something on the order of 13 'incidents' in
the first year of recently new pipe lines that they have build.

So what? You can't build a house without making sawdust.

Sawdust is not toxic. I paid for my engineering degree working in the oil
patch and more times than I care to mention in the refineries around the
Ship Channel. The one that has been mentioned most in the plans for the XL
oil was (is) owned in part by BP and has a horrendous history of bean
counter screw ups that have resulted in big fines and more than a few
deaths.

Need I mention that refinery availability is a fungible number and often
used to justify high fuel prices.